These posts are in chronological order, which makes it sort of hard to follow, for example posts from a bicycle tour. For the tours the applicable posts are attached to the tour itself where they are easier to follow.
I've been putting off sharing this story. I hardly know how to tell it. Once I made the decision to bail on the tour and fly home I had a lot of tasks to accomplish to make that happen.
I could have flown out of Tupelo but I thought it would be easier to drive to Nashville and fly from there. That way I would also be able to drive the rest of the Natchez Trace Parkway.
After a rest day in Natchez yesterday, I woke up this morning to severe thunderstorms and tornado watch. Well I ain't going nowhere. Call me a wimp but I'm riding this one out in my dry motel room. While I'm sure it's not an uncommon experience for cycle tourist to have to lay low and wait out inclement weather, it's just never happened to me before. In Oregon and Washington, where I've done most of my touring, getting caught in the rain may be unpleasant, but it is rarely life threatening.
I left St. Augustine on March 20, and crossed into Alabama on April 5. The weather was almost perfect with most days in the mid 70's. Only one day of rain which was a layover day in Tallahassee. I had many more days of tailwinds than of headwinds. I rode many really nice bike paths, some quiet country roads, and far too many busy highways. I never felt unsafe on the road as traffic was for the most part very respectful. I met some wonderful Warm Showers hosts, stayed in a couple of scenic campgrounds, and one really nice "old Florida" style motel.
Week one recap. I left St. Augustine a week ago and rode 316 miles to Tallahassee, and I'm only half way across the panhandle of Florida. I've stayed with fantastic Warm Showers hosts 3 nights, a couple of nice campgrounds, and a couple of motels. I've seen a lot of egrets, herons, turkeys, peacocks, and vultures. Florida is big on vultures. I've also seen bright red cardinals, which was a real treat. I've seen a lot of American flags, but relatively few Trump signs. I've seen 3 Israeli flags and one Ukrainian flag. Also lots of Florida flags.
Today I crossed the Suwannee River on my ride across Florida. Yes it is the Su - WA - nee River, not the Swanee River as Stephen Foster called it. Riding along you have plenty of time to think about stuff and so I spent a lot of time thinking about "The old folks at home". It's a song we all learned as kids, well before we learned about slavery. The lyrics had even been doctored to meet modern sensibility. But the song is indeed about how good life was "on the old plantation".
I added a new View to the system to tally up my touring stats. Here is what I have as of March 2024. My first tour was in 2005 so not quite 20 years. This includes overnight tours.
St. Augustine to Corvallis. There's a lot of country in between. I decided I could leave earlier in the spring if I started on the ACA Southern Tier, which starts in St. Augustine and heads west along the gulf coast. The other option would have been to head north along the Atlantic to the start of the ACA TransAm in Virginia.
I envisioned this as a road and rails-to-trails tour, with the occasional gravel road if it gets me away from traffic. I'm not planning any rugged bikepacking like the Oregon Outback, so I figured the Soma Saga was the best bike for the tour. The Saga worked well on my six days down the coast in 2022. But it needed work.
It's now late February. On March 11 I fly to Florida. I'll spend a week visiting family and then hop on my bike and ride home.
This bike is very versatile. I got this bike primarily for gravel road touring but I also wanted to be able to do unloaded rides in the woods and trails locally. I've played around with a lot of different configurations trying to find the ideal setup. It handles them all very well.
New bike naked. As light and free as it would get.
Coffeneuring is a thing that happens in the fall where people ride their bikes to coffee shops. The "neuring" part comes from Randonneuring where people ride their bikes for hundreds of miles, sometimes for days on end, stopping only for a quick bite to eat. Coffeeneuring is not like that. Rides can be any distance and done at any pace. You just have to stop and have coffee/tea/other along the way. So here are some of the coffeneuring rides I did this fall.
My first full year of retirement allowed me to do lots of bike touring. I rode 7,110 total miles for the year, which is an all time personal best. I got to ride through a lot of beautiful and interesting places, met lots of new friends, and reconnected with lots of old friends. Looking forward to a lot more of the same in 2017
Winter - I've got my plane tickets and my bike is half in the box. New Zealand Feb 1 - Mar 20 . It's a go.
Spring - Coast Range gravel gliding. Hopefully a 200k brevet. Maybe a short trip through the Cascades to conincide with McKenzie pass care free days.
Summer - I may pass on the MVBC Loop Tour this year as I just did most of that route laste fall. Instead I may head up to B.C. and then east to Jasper, and then south to Banff, and back in the US at Glacier. I could take the train home from Montrana.
I'm very satisfied that I met most of my touring goals for the year.
Winter - I did a Florida loop
Spring - 4 day trip to the coast for ACA Bike Travel Weekend.
Summer - MVBC Loop Tour in the Willowas. Then Washington and the John Wayne Pioneer Trail.
Fall - Crater Lake and Ashland.
Last winter I set some ambitious goals for the year. Here is how it worked out.
Heart of the valley - Yes did this ride again this year. - Heart of the Valley 2015
Valsetz loop - Nope not yet. Did do the Cardwell Hill to Hoskins part, as well as a nice loop including Harris road.
With 4 tours covering a good deal of Oregon and Washington, 3 years of commuting all winter, plus numerous overnight tours and day rides, the Soma Saga has been a solid, dependable, and fun ride. This page has the original specs and a picture when it was new. I think I did the first two tours with the Jandd Extreme front rack, but then opted for the Tubus Tara low rider. I've changed the saddle a few times, most recently to a Selle Anatomica X series. The original set of Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires got 6,500 miles without a flat.
